If you think back on the first months of CityVille on Facebook, you might remember how empty your city streets were, as cars were nowhere to be found. Now that CityVille 2 has launched on Facebook, cars are thankfully available right from the beginning, and we can even take advantage of some neat design options to make our cities function for those cars, trucks, moving vans and more.

One such design option is the ability to place Parking Lots without needing to purchase them in the store. Unlike in the original CityVille (which did require you to purchase Parking Lots as a decoration), these CityVille 2 Parking Lots can be customized in terms of size and shape, and you'll even see your town's vehicles actively pulling into parking spaces, helping bring the city to life.

In order to build a Parking Lot, you'll first need to build a road. The road can be any size, so long as it has at least one free square running parallel with it. To create the Parking Lot, you'll need to build a second road right next to the first, so that the two touch. From there, the game takes over and creates a Parking Lot in this second strip of asphalt. Unfortunately, that means we can't have four-lane highways in our town (yet, anyway), but the Parking Lots are definitely a nice touch as it stands.

There are some weird ticks with this Parking Lot feature, as any updating to the touching road might cause them to vanish, but they can easily be replaced by simply moving items around or even by purchasing a few new road squares in the store. Just make sure you have at least a general idea of what you want your city's final product to look like, as road pieces (and therefore Parking Lots) aren't free.

What do you think of this Parking Lot feature in CityVille 2? Will you build Parking Lots in your commercial districts in CityVille 2, or do you think they're just a waste of space? Sound off in the comments!